So Freaking Beautiful
by Sosie98
Summary: Pepper goes to visit her family and runs into an obstacle of the Motherly kind. AU to previous one-shots. Established Pepperony. Pepper/Tony T for language.


_Kinda similar to my last one-shot, but I love to mess around with the whole Pepper/her family thing. Really fun. I personally really like this piece, and I hope you do too(:_

Pepper wondered what had made her do it. It had been a completely stupid decision. One she hadn't thought through at all. She'd just figured it was about time, and hopped on that plane to Georgia. But now... God, she couldn't believe how stupid she'd been.

She stood outside the door of the single floor farm house with one hand outstretched, hesitating to ring the doorbell. It was quite appealing to ring it. After all, her parents were getting along in their years and this might be the last chance to spend Thanksgiving with them. Every girl wants to say that they spent the holidays with their parents in the years before they died, right?

But then there was that other option. That option of running home to her loving husband and her little girls and just sitting on the couch eating TV dinners and watching Honey Boo Boo re-runs until Christmas. That sounded just a little bit better. Pepper rocked back and forth in her Louboutins and looked around her. Fields stretched in every direction and here and there among the corn was a scarecrow. Its beady little eyes weathered from the strong storms that swept through the South every now and again. Pepper could almost spot the one she'd made when she was eight, way out in the backfields, swinging in the wind, its head lopsided as ever.

Pepper shook her head and looked down at the ground. What was she doing here? This wasn't her home anymore and it never had been. Here Pepper was in a business suit and six-hundred dollar shoes standing in the middle of a cornfield, with Happy behind her relaxing on the hood of his limo and smoking one of those stupidly high-priced cigars. What if her parents saw-

"Ginny?"

Pepper was shocked out of her revery as the door swung open and her sister stepped out, smiling wide and holding her arms out. Pepper stepped into them and held her tight, feeling a little bit awkward as her shoes made her practically a head taller than her older sister.

"Ginny, I had no idea you were coming!" her sister squealed, and Pepper noticed she'd put on a LOT of weight since her wedding six years ago.

"I wasn't sure if I was, to be honest. Not quite sure if Mom wants me to be here."

"Lord, you've lost your accent!" said her sister, scrutinizing her carefully, "And Ginny, the whole family will be happy you came!"

Pepper smiled kindly. Becca had always been pretty naive to what was really going on and this was for sure one of those times. After all, the last thanksgiving she'd tried to come had started like this and not turned out so peachy keen.

"Mrs. S- er...Potts?" Happy called, hesitating, as Pepper made to walk inside. Pepper turned and watched as her sisters eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, and hastily made a slashing motion at her throat. Happy dropped the bags, cleared his throat and ran into the limo, speeding away so fast that he was a speck in the fields in seconds.

As soon as the dust settled Pepper turned to her sister, who was still staring after the limo in shock.

"Please don't tell Mom... or Dad for that matter, about anything you just saw... or heard. I've got enough going on as is."

Becca turned and looked at her, "What'd he just start to call you?"

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"I'm your sister, Ginny, if you're married I think I ought to know."

Pepper looked at her incredulously, obviously her sister wasn't as stupid as she had originally thought, "You think I'm married? Have you heard anything that Mom said about me? She's been begging me to get married for years. If I was then I think-"

"Is that guy, the one who just got out of that fancy car, who you're married to, Gin? Cause I swear you can do a lot better than..."

"Uh-no," Pepper smiled, "Happy Hogan's my limo driver, and he may be nice, but he is in NO way my type."

"Limo..." Becca shook her head as she picked up one of Pepper's suitcases, "I wondered why you were wearing those fancy- Lord have mercy, What the hell do you have in here?"

Pepper laughed as she lugged the other two bags up to the house, "I do have clothes, but its mostly my computer... and shoes."

Pepper's phone started to ring, and she pulled it out of her pocket quickly, dropping her suitcase and blowing the fallen hair out of her face, "Hey... yeah, I just got here... same as ever, just a bunch of corn," Becca looked offended, "no you _cannot_. I've said this before and I'll say it again: nuclear technology isn't for kids, Tony... Fine... as long as its supervised... and JARVIS doesn't count."

Pepper laughed and Becca gave her a look, "I gotta go. Love ya too... and make sure you get them- he hung up."  
Pepper shut off her phone and rolled her eyes at Becca's knowing smile, "So his name's Tony. That's pretty cute..."  
"Oh, shut up you asshole."

"Harsh words, Ginny! Those Northern ways ain't doing you no good."

"And this Southern mentality doesn't help your grammar much."

Becca rolled her eyes and they began their walk up to the house yet again, "Just a bunch of corn... you've obviously never been to a hoedown."

"Can't say that I want to."  
"You've obviously never lived."

…

When Becca opened the front door of the farm house, a cloud of aromas settled over Pepper like a bomb. Her family needed to lay off the cooking. It was seriously bad for their health.

Pepper stepped inside and pulled her suitcase down the narrow hallway to the living room. The moment she emerged from the hallway Pepper felt like it was the first time she'd ever been on stage at the Expo. Family members she barely knew or those who she hadn't seen in years were screaming her name.

"Ginny!"

"Virginia, darling, you're a woman!"

"How's my Gin-Gin?"  
That last one was her little brother, Thomas. Where he'd gotten the Gin-Gin from Pepper didn't know. He climbed over the sofa and hugged her, seeming so much bigger than the last time she'd seen him, even though that didn't make sense because he was probably about 30.

"Ginny, I want you to meet my girlfriend. Allison, this is my sister."  
The girl was pretty, a bombshell blonde with double B's and perfect skin, but Pepper had seemed to many of _those_ type of women to think much of her. She had to prove her worth.

"Hi," Allison said shyly, a little more demure than her chest would suggest, "I'm Alli."

Pepper grinned and shook her hand, all business, "I'm Pep-Virginia."

"Pep-Virginia?" Alli said with a smile.

"Just Ginny," Pepper blushed as Thomas smirked.

"Nervous about meeting my girlfriend, Gin?"

Pepper smiled, but rolled her eyes, "I'm not nervous about anything, _Tommy_."

"Don't call me that."  
"Don't call me Gin-gin."

He scratched his salt-and-pepper hair and looked down at her, "You're different, Ginny. So mature and level-headed. You're no fun anymore."

Her Uncle Fred, with a beer belly and glass raised gave his two cents. "All that modeling going to your head, Ginny?"

Pepper swiveled, "Modeling? What are you talkin-"

"He's talking," said her mother, wiping her hands on a dish towel and scowling as hard as ever as she appeared from the kitchen, "About your sole source of income. I hope you know what that is."

Pepper smiled as big as she possibly could, "Mother! So great to see you again."  
"Can't say the same for you. Just another big-shot Northern mouth to feed. You a vegetarian, Virginia?"

"I-what?" She shook her head, confused, "No. No, I eat meat."

"Good." her mother nodded, "Wasn't planning on making anything special for you."

"Oh-oh-okay, but modeling... what is he...?"

"Modeling Virginia," her mother said, raising her eyebrows, "It's taking pictures for money. You've been doing it since high school."

"I quit doing that before I left home. You knew that... right? What did you think-"

The room went silent as Pepper's mother whipped her dirty dish towel against the wall, all eyes focused on their conversation.

"All these years and I was proud of you for getting a good career started. You've never been as smart, as pretty, or loved as your sister, but at least someone thought you were. Now I find out... that was all a lie?"

"Mother, I told you when-" Pepper said looking affronted.

"You most certainly did not."  
Pepper stared down at the ground, wanting so desperately to be at home.

"So here you are," said her mother, pacing across the floor of the living room, "Walking into my house and demanding a space for dinner without a house or a roof over your head... did you expect _me_ to allow _you_ to live here? After all these-"  
"Mama," Becca said from across the room, "Ginny's successful. She got here in a real nice car. I promise, I saw it."  
Pepper buried her head in her hands as everyone swiveled their necks to her, "I am successful, mother."

"You're successful?" her mother paused in pacing and crossed her arms against her chest, "What exactly do you do?" She was measuring her words very carefully.

"I'm in business."

"In business, eh?"

Pepper nodded, trying to keep from losing control of herself.

"What exactly do you do _in business._"

"I manage a company."

"Sorry to let you down, Virginia, but a computer business run out of your garage does not count as managing a company. Nor does it give you any right to wear those ridiculous-"

"It's not out of my _garage_, mother."

"What is this company then? Ashamed to admit it? Good lord, my daughter's a CEO!" her mother feigned excitement, then sunk back down into an evil glare, "We all know you ain't nothing. You're just ashamed to admit it. Your sister's a stay at home mother with a lovely family and your brother's setting himself out right on the path with the lovely Allison, and you- well you're living alone running a business out of your garage... darling, that don't count."

Pepper could feel the anger building inside her, threatening to burst. Don't do it, rational Pepper whispered, Don't make an ass out of yourself. But as Mrs. Potts made her way into the kitchen, Pepper let go.

"Stark Industries! That's what I'm CEO of, you bitch! That's a freaking multinational, multi-million dollar company that I am _running_. I am running it, mother! You have no- no, right to say that I am not living up to my siblings. None. I am a freaking billionaire, do you understand what that means? That means I have a ton of money. You wouldn't know how that is, seeing as you're still a poor stay at home wife on a farm," Pepper didn't pause, she wasn't registering faces anymore. She was just screaming. Forgetting where she was. Forgetting everything, "And you know what else mother, I'm married. I'm married to Tony freaking Stark, and we're insanely happy together... and we have two beautiful children who we're raising the right way. Not the way you raised me. I have to watch him fly away in a suit every night and pray that he doesn't die. And when he comes home all beaten up by people who don't even know who he is, I tell myself not to cry because I have to be there for him, for my kids, my company and you know what... I think I'm doing a pretty damn good job."

And that's when Pepper sat down on the couch, in between her Uncle Fred and her sister Becca and sobbed. Broken-hearted sobbing. Because she wanted to go home and because she was tired of all this crap. And Becca held her tight and said that she was happy for her. Which just made Pepper cry harder, because Becca was so happy for everyone. When she finally sat herself up and looked around, the whole room was crying. Including her Uncle Fred. And telling her how proud they were of her and how happy they were that she was doing well.

And in that moment she didn't care what her mother thought of her. All that mattered was that they were here, and they were accepting. And that afternoon when she hopped off the plane at JFK and collapsed in her husband's arms with her little girls bouncing around her ankles she was happy. Blissfully happy. Because in yelling at her mother, she'd realized it. Her life was so freaking beautiful.

_Because I like to make Pepper a little badass._

_Please comment and review!_

_I love you,_

_Sofie Stark_


End file.
